Kid Trails, “People Has It Hard”

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Toro Y Moi bassist Patrick Jeffords, aka Kid Trails, is set to release an EP entitled Naming, and he’s giving us the first taste of the project today. The talented instrumentalist released a cover of Coleman Family’s “People Has It Hard,” which carries an all-too-relevant message to modern times. Kid Trails says via e-mail that he first heard the original track “eight years ago and it always stuck with me.” He isn’t allowing the song’s gloomy lyrics to consume the entire experience, however, pairing the track with an idyllic, contrasting visual.

As Kid Trails and his partner Charlotte walk dogs along a beach, the song’s cheerful guitar riff becomes the soundtrack to their fun, frolicking. The juxtaposition is a clever choice for the record which required some cup-half-full optimism on Kid Trails’ part to complete.

“The song got accidentally pitched up when we saved it, and we didn’t notice it until the next day,” he recalls. “My engineer, Jonny, was bugging out for a minute and trying to fix it and nothing was working. Brijean Murphy was already there and on a tight schedule. I suggested that we just listen to the playback. We listened to it and it sounded cool and everybody just agreed we should roll with it. Brijean laid down the percussion and then it was like ‘aw yeah this is sick.’”